


Wraith

by the_witching_hours



Series: Wraith [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-09-22 20:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 17,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9624950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_witching_hours/pseuds/the_witching_hours
Summary: Follows the story line of CA:CWA former assassin finds out the Winter Soldier is living in her apartment building. Not only that, but he seems to have some unexpected company...





	1. Chapter 1

When he moved in upstairs, she recognized him immediately. There was no way she could have forgotten him, or the things he’d done, or what he was capable of; she just wasn’t afraid. She had a tendency to not fear things that she should; some people called this a flaw, she chose to see it as an asset. In her world, fear was not a friend.

Being born with preternatural powers and senses was also an asset, but one that she was still coming to grips with now at 25. Not hard to believe knowing what she’d been through because of said powers.

The tiny basement apartment that she currently called home was her most recent in a string of places she used to escape her captors. The place looked like shit, and didn’t smell much better, but it was hers, and hers alone. No one controlled her here, no early mornings woken up by a bucket of ice water to her face, no afternoons of merciless training, and no evenings of punishment for failing to meet expectations during said training. She happily embraced the dark, dank space over a clean, and sterile HYDRA cell any day.

At the time, she couldn’t believe her luck; she would never have been able to escape if not for the Avengers. No, they didn’t directly help her, but their timely attack on the facility attached to hers was unbelievably fortuitous. She was able to manipulate her cell’s door and squeak out while the skeleton crew of HYDRA guards was occupied with the attack outside. Her only hang up while leaving had been her inability to contact the twins. She knew that they were in the facility being attacked, and she worried for them. Wanda and Pietro had so much hate in their hearts for Stark, and by extension the Avengers as a whole, but HYDRA was going to get them killed. Wanda knew how bad HYDRA was, but her judgment was too clouded to act on the information. All she could do was hope that they were safe; the twins were the only people that mattered in her miserable life anymore.

She ran through a quick stretch routine and cleared her mind. In order for her to use her powers , she needed to stop the frazzled hurricane that was her thought process. Taking a deep breath, she sat in the middle of her floor, closed her eyes, and stretched out her senses. She sensed the lady upstairs and her three year old son eating their late breakfast, next to them was the elderly couple who owned the building, then several floors up was the man of the hour, about to leave his apartment. This was the man she had recognized when he moved in about a month after she had. Since the two lived in different levels of the building, they didn’t have much direct contact, but he always seemed sad, lonely, and confused.

Her power was energy manipulation, not quite telepathy, but she could sense people’s emotions, and to a certain extent, their motivations; using this, she could predict people’s behavior. But her most powerful ability was electrokinesis; she could form lightning whips and energy balls as well as draw power from or cut a building's power. HYDRA used her energy powers as a segue to teach her hacking, if anything “positive” had come from her time with HYDRA, it was her new hacking skills.

HYDRA had harnessed her energy reading early on, she may not have been as accurate as a telepath, but she was more subtle; harder to detect. They also had her manipulate people’s energy; making them fall asleep, or wiring them up. Pietro had particularly benefited from her gaining control of this; she had helped him calm down plenty of times. He would calm almost the moment he walked into her room; a small smile spread across her face as she pictured him laying his head in her lap and he told stories of his and Wanda’s childhood while she calmed him.

She was still lost in her memories as she felt a new energy enter the building. She looked closer; it was a man, he read similar to the man upstairs (maybe a similar age, she thought). This new man was nervous, searching for something. He didn’t stop at the stairs down to her room, nor did he stop at any of the families’ doors above her. He kept climbing until he reached the single man’s apartment. He paused there as if unsure, then he entered the apartment and started to search again. He found something after a few minutes that made some of his anxiety leave him, but he made no move to exit the apartment. Then the lonely man entered the building.

She ran out of her room and met him in the hallway before she even stopped to think. She had no idea what she was going to say to him “Hey, so I was using my super powers to spy on the other tenets and thought you should know that a strange man went into your place”? Even if she could have translated that into Romanian, she knew she couldn’t say something that batshit out loud. 

The lonely man turned to look at her, confused, and then worried as he asked if she was alright. That, at least she could answer.  
After assuring him that she was fine, she told him that a stranger came into the building looking for him. Sure, it wasn’t the full truth, but it was safer than the truth.

After she finished, his face paled and he closed his eyes, “Shit!”

“Right, you speak English,” she stated, ”I knew that.” Not entirely pertinent maybe, but she couldn’t believe she had forgotten that.

He nodded absently and glanced at the stairs before looking back at her, “You need to get out of here. There’s gonna be a shit-ton of trigger-happy assholes in charging in here and they won’t hold back if you get in their way..” She looked at him flatly before speaking, as calmly as she could.

“I know who you are, I know who you think is after you, and I can help.” When he looked at her a little shocked, she shook her head lightly and looked down, 

“I mean really, what are the odds that you would end up hiding in the same place as me? The Winter Soldier chose the EXACT same building, in the EXACT same city as I did?! I should have known that things were going too easy.”

The soldier was looking at her perplexed, like he had no idea where she’d lost her marbles, but he didn’t think they were in her head.

“Who are you?”


	2. Chapter 2

“Who are you?” He asked, checking the stairs in his peripheral vision while keeping her in front of him.

“No one you’d remember. My name is Regan, but my HYDRA call tag was ‘Wraith’,” she clarified, now also eying the stairs.

The soldier looked back at her, squinting a little, seemingly wracking his brain..

“Look,” she started, “there is only one guy here as of now, there will probably be more coming, what’s our move?” Just realizing as it left her lips that she had said “our move”. “ _Well, we can help each other for now, assuming he doesn’t think I’m HYDRA,_ ” she thought.

Meanwhile, the soldier groaned, rolling his head back on his shoulders before speaking,

“There is no ‘our move.’ I will handle this. Get out of here while you can.” He started taking the stairs away from her, two at a time, but he paused on the first landing, without looking at her, he spoke again, “I do know you… get out of here Wraith, don’t let them get you again.” Then he was gone up the stairs.

Regan watched him disappear before she ran back into her room and grabbed her “go bag” from it's hiding spot behind the broken freezer and stuffed the few personal items she had back inside. After one last glance around her space, she dashed out the door.

When she reached the first floor, she stopped, reaching out with her energy, she pulled her neighbors into a deep sleep, she hoped to keep them safer this way; if they were to run into the hallway and meet a HYDRA agent, they would be dead. Regan thought about going up to the soldier’s room, but she didn’t know what good she would be, so she turned and ran outside. She had just rounded the corner when a group of armed men in tactical gear entered the building.

Regan slowed them down as much as she could, pulling on their energy carefully so she wouldn’t draw their attention; if they were HYDRA, they may know about her, and too much of a draw would alert them. She kept watch on the outside of the building in the area of the soldier’s apartment, the windows were all blocked by newspaper so she couldn’t see in, but she knew that the fighting had started, so she began pulling energy from any men she didn’t recognize. The man who had shown up first seemed to be helping the soldier, but all the others were against him. Just as Regan began to worry about the soldier’s odds, she heard a crash and saw a body fly off of a balcony and towards the roof of the building next door. When she read his energy, it told her that the soldier was mostly unharmed, and had made the leap under his own power, but he was frustrated, and scared. She followed his movements as well as she could without drawing attention to herself, but when his chase entered the freeway, she fell back.

By the time Regan had caught up, the soldier was stopped, and surrounded. Scanning the energies around, she recognized the man who had snuck into the soldier’s apartment, and when she saw his face, she did a double take. Captain America was standing next to the soldier, separating him from a man dressed in an all black suit, and from Iron Patriot, across from the captain, you saw Falcon as well. _“Well fuck,”_ she thought as she watched from a distance as Iron patriot led the others into a police cruiser, all but the soldier, he was strapped into a secure transport van. _“Aren’t most of these guys supposed to be Avengers? Why are Falcon and Captain America being arrested?”_ She sighed; realizing that the only way she would get the answers to these questions would be to step back into her old life. Was she really willing to open up that can of radioactive worms? For the Winter Soldier? She knew that it would be stupid for her to do what she was about to, but as the soldier was being locked into the van, Regan caught a glimpse of the hopeless look on his face and that was all it took. She reached into her bag and activated the burn phone she carried before dialing a number she had hoped to never need again.

While she was updated on the current state of HYDRA and the Avengers’ camps, Regan headed toward the airport, her final destination, the counterterrorism building in Berlin. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Follows the story line of Civil War. Regan is an ex-HYDRA experiment who has been on the run for about a year. Turns out the Winter Soldier has been hiding not only in the same city as her, but the same BUILDING. Chaos ensues and she offers her help to Bucky and his friend Steve.

“God damn politics,” she cursed under her breath. She was staked out just outside the counterterrorism building that the soldier was being held in along with Captain America and Falcon. While she’d traveled, Regan had updated herself on the situation the Avengers had mired themselves in; and internal war over government oversight, she rolled her eyes. Regan knew that the soldier hadn’t been responsible for the bombing in Vienna, he had been in the apartment building at the time, she’d read his energy level and he’d been asleep. Unfortunately, Regan was pretty sure her testimony wouldn’t help anyone.

So she waited outside the building, and kept an eye on the energies within. After sifting through the hundreds of people inside, she had located the soldier’s energy and monitored him. She saw the change in his energy when the Winter Soldier was activated and her heart almost stopped, before it started to race uncontrollably. 

When she sensed someone’s energy, it was similar to what a psychic would call an “aura reading”; the energy surrounding a person, took on a color depending on their personal state. Personal state being their emotion, energy level, and in the Winter Soldier’s case, his state of mental awareness. As he was activated, his energy “aura” shifted, violently from a soft, baby blue, to a deep, deep, black. A black energy usually signified a dead body, no energy, but this black was shot through with what looked like small lightning bolts of energy; he wasn’t dead, just mind dead.

Regan tensed as the soldier neared the lobby, he was taking out anyone who came at him, including at least two skilled fighters. Regan recognized the energy of the man in the black suit, whom she had been informed, was the newly crowned King of Wakanda, and felt him fight the soldier too. The king managed to redirect the soldier and cause him to head for the roof instead of the front door. No one seemed to be able to stop him for any period of time,  and thinking that she could possibly help, Regan decided to engage. She climbed the outer walls of the building as fast as she could, attempting to beat the soldier to the roof.  She reached the roof just as the soldier ripped the handle off of a helicopter door and climbed inside. As soon as her feet hit the roof, Regan pulled sharply on the energy surrounding him, trying to tire him out and slow him down, or ideally, knock him unconscious. But the soldier resisted. Captain America burst out of the stairwell as the soldier started the helicopter and sprinted over just in time to grab it as it lifted off the roof, neither of the soldiers seemed to notice Regan’s presence on the edge of the roof as they struggled.

The Captain was desperately gripping the helicopter strut as he clung to the building, but there was no way he could keep the helicopter there for long. Regan yanked harder on the soldier’s energy again, and now began to feed it to the Captain to boost him. She saw when the drain started to take effect on the soldier, but the soldier must have noticed to. Suddenly he turned the chopper so that the blades were headed for the Captain. Captain America managed to duck and dodge the blades, but as he stood up and went to check on the soldier who was still in the helicopter, he was suddenly pinned to the body of the aircraft as it started to tip. REgan couldn’t stop the chopper from falling off the roof, taking both of the super soldiers with it, down into the river below.  _ “FUCK!” _

As she raced from the roof to the river, Regan searched for Falcon’s energy and found him nearby, sharply changing direction, she ran up to him.

“I know where they are,” she whispered to him, grabbing his wrist and starting to pull him to the river.

“Who are you?!” Falcon whisper-shouted back at her as he followed.

“I will explain later. First let’s get the super soldiers out of the river, yeah?”

The Captain was awake as Falcon dragged him from the river and he was already holding the Winter Soldier, who was luckily still breathing.

“There is a deserted warehouse district not far from here. We should head there.” Regan supplied as soon as the Captain was fully out of the water.

“Who are you?”  he asked as he hoisted the soldier over his shoulder and looked to Falcon.

“I already asked her Cap, she said she’d explain later.”

“Look, let’s just get out of here and out of sight first and I will happily spill my life story okay?” she growled at the men who were not seeming to understand the gravity of their situation. They nodded and followed her as she led them to what she hoped was relative safety.

Once they were all inside one of the vacant buildings, that turned out to be some sort of machine shop, the men clamped the soldier’s vibranium arm inside a large mechanical vise before they rounded on Regan.

“It’s not that we don’t appreciate the help,” the Captain said calmly, “but I don’t know who we can trust right now.”

“I get it, I do. My story is long, and it may not make you all that comfortable around me, honestly, but I’ll tell you what I can.”

The men nodded, she took a deep breath and started, “My name is Regan Adair. I was a HYDRA prisoner turned asset for 14 years. I have powers over energy, which I can explain later if you want. Obviously I escaped from HYDRA, thanks to you all actually, last year you hit a base in Southern Germany adjacent to the one I was held in and you gave me an opening. So, thanks for that. I was hiding in Bucharest when the Winter Soldier, who apparently had the same idea I did, moved into my apartment building. I sensed the Captain, here, enter the building and I warned the soldier and tracked your fight.

“I followed you all to Berlin and the counterterrorism building, where I sensed the solder activate. I tried to help, but you fell off the roof, so I found Falcon, and here we are.”

“Wow… ok,” the Captain said as Falcon whistled lowly.

“Yeah, I know. Oh! But I can alibi the soldier for the bombing in Vienna! He was in the building all day, I’m pretty sure he was asleep. I monitored him a lot,” she added the last part sheepishly. But she saw Captain America visibly relax as she told him that. 

“Ok,” he said, nodding, “thank you Regan. I, we, really appreciate the help, really, but you shouldn’t get any more involved in this.”

“In what, the accords? I’m not. I just want to help the soldier. I… he deserves it.” She said looking downwards.

“Bucky.”

“What?”

“His name is James Buchanan Barnes, but I always called him ‘Bucky’, he preferred it, at least he used to.”

“Oh, okay then, I want to help Bucky.” She said with conviction.  _ “‘Bucky’... It’s better than referring to him as “the soldier” all the time” _ , “and if helping Bucky means helping you… well I could do a hell of a lot worse than throwing in with Captain America and Falcon,” she stated, shrugging.

Falcon smiled, “I like this kid Cap.” He said looking at the Captain and then back to Regan, “the name’s Sam. It’s nice to meet you Regan.” He stuck out his hand and she shook it.

“I’m Steve,” the Captain said, mimicking Sam’s move.

 


	4. Chapter 4

“Which Bucky am I talking to?” Steve asked as Bucky woke up.

“Your mom’s name was Sarah. You used to wear newspapers in your shoes.”

The men talked and Regan held a position by the big, rollingdoor, eavesdropping while keeping watch. She didn’t feel anyone coming within her power’s radius so she wasn’t concerned, but she kept her spot anyway, giving the Captain and his long lost friend at least the illusion of privacy.

“Regan,” Cap called, “can you come here for a second?” She left her position by the door and walked back to the threshold of the other room.

“What’s up?” Regan asked, glancing at Bucky before looking at Steve.

“God,” Bucky grimaced, “I told you to get  _ out _ not get  _ involved _ .”

“Well excuse me for trying to help your sorry ass,” Regan sassed back out of reflex before turning to Steve, “did you need something?” Sam stifled a laugh.

“I was going to ask if you were sure you wanted a part in this fight.” Regan cocked an eyebrow and stared at him as if to say “really?” Sam couldn’t hold in a guffaw this time and Bucky groaned, hanging his head. 

“Ok, tell us what you’ve got up your sleeve then.” Steve stated simply. Regan blinked, a little taken aback by the bluntness in his tone, he had clearly switched from “affable friend” to “Captain” mode.

“Energy manipulation,” She explained, “I can read energies, make people exhausted or wire them up. I can manipulate electricity, form lighting and mold it into balls and whips. I can make energy shields and I can hack anything with an operating system, but that’s skill, not a power.”

“Shit, I do remember you. I was instructed to observe you when you were first obtained,” Regan’s eyes shot to Bucky as he spoke, “I was going to be your next trainer. They would have made me if I hadn’t left when I did.”

“Wouldn’t have been the worst thing they ever did,” she shrugged in response.

Steve and Sam stepped back, talking quietly as Regan approached Bucky.

“Want me to get this off?” She asked motioning to the vice still clamped tight around his left arm.

Bucky grimaced but nodded, and she looked around for a release switch, finding none, Regan laid her hand on the machine and pushed some of her energy into the gears, forcing the vice to release.

“Well that’s one way to do it,” Sam laughed lightly, having watched her. Sam hadn’t actually been sure how to release the vice; not that he seemed particularly worried about that fact.

“Regan, do you have a phone?” She reached into her pocket and tossed the device to Steve when he asked. He talked to someone named Clint, a name she assumed referred to Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, and then he mentioned a name she recognized.

“Wanda  _ Maximoff _ ?” she asked, noticeably excited, as Steve handed the phone off to Sam, who dialed a number of his own.

“Yeah, she joined us after Sokovia. You know her?”

“The twins and I were housed together a lot with HYDRA. Are they okay? I haven’t been able to contact them since I escaped.”

“Regan,” Steve started, “Regan, the twins fought with us in Sokovia. They fought hard, Wanda has a great handle on her powers now.” Regan smiled at that, Wanda had been so afraid of her powers before. Regan and Pietro were constantly reassuring her, and Regan had calmed Wanda almost as often as she had calmed Pietro. She felt so proud that Wanda was improving, but Steve wasn’t done.

“Regan, Pietro didn’t make it out of Sokovia.”

“What?”

“He was shot multiple times while saving a little boy. He died before we could save him.”

There was an intense ringing noise in Regan’s head all of a sudden. Her legs felt unsteady. Steve was still trying to talk to her but she couldn’t hear him.  _ “Pietro…” _ Flashes of him smiling, talking to her and Wanda, hugging her when she got back from a mission safely; he was almost as much a brother to Regan as he was to Wanda. And he was gone. Regan had never even said goodbye to him when she escaped, and now she’d never see him again. He’d had no way of knowing that she was alive, and she knew he would have worried. He died without her being able to tell he she was safe. He was gone.

Regan’s knees hit the concrete floor, hard, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. It took a minute for her to realize that someone was kneeling in front of her, shaking her shoulder lightly and calling out to her.

“Regan. Regan, we have to get out of here. If you don’t snap out of it I am going to carry you out of here,” Bucky murmured as he rested his hands on her shoulders.

“Don’t, I’ll walk, I just…”Regan closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  _ “Right, process later, move now. Game face on.” _ She opened her eyes again, having slipped partially into her “Wraith” persona, and met Bucky’s gaze before she nodded and stood up, her knees protesting slightly.

Once they had all managed to cram themselves into Cap’s choice of car, Regan could feel her heart race again; the combination of confined space, and barely realized pain had her breaths coming in increasingly shorter.

She had just closed her eyes and curled over her knees as much as she could when Bucky spoke to her.

“So, tell me more about your powers. I got the short version before, but how do they work?”

The out-of-the-blue question gave Regan pause, just as Bucky had intended. She was struggling to breath and he could tell she was panicking, so he threw a question at her that had nothing to do with the cause of her panic and had the bonus of being complicate to answer. As the Winter Soldier, he had been briefed on her powers, so he knew what she could do, but he had no real idea how they worked, not that he needed to, but he had asked Regan the first question he could think of.

“Um… it’s… shit, I’ve never tried to explain how they work before…” her speech stumbled as she kept fighting her lungs. “I can see energy, it looks like a colorful, hazy blob around people. The… the color depends on the person’s energy level and mood. I can pull from the energy around a person, and I can pull directly from the person, or I can feed a person more energy. I can also pull energy from an electrical source. That’s actually easier.”

“You can make energy balls too right?” Bucky thought he remembered seeing her throw one once, it had melted a hole through a metal wall, sizzling all the way through.

“And a sort of whip.” She responded, still bent over, but breathing easier. “I can make a shield too. Shit just bounces off of it. But that is hard to hold for very long, especially if I want to protect more than one person. I can remote start engines too. That one is fun to mess with,” she said smiling slightly  as she looked sideways at Bucky.

Bucky smiled back as the car wound its way through back alleys.

 


	5. Chapter 5

“Man, I don’t think the Captain understands the concept of a getaway car.” Regan grumbled in annoyance from the back seat. The back seat of a VW bug is a cramped place to begin with, add a super-soldier to the front seat, crunching up her already limited foot room, and  _ another _ super-soldier to the small back seat next to her and that car is borderline sardine can territory.

Steve drove the rusted up car around in what seemed like aimless directions, clearly having no idea how uncomfortable Regan and Bucky were behind him. When he finally stopped the car, he had parked under an overpass, behind a shiny black sedan. Steve had explained that he had a contact in the counterterrorism unit that he convinced to bring his, Sam’s, and Bucky’s belongings and meet up with them. As Steve climbed out of the car, a blonde woman about Regan’s age slipped out of the sedan and popped the trunk. She met Steve at the now open trunk and they began to talk quietly.

“Could you move your seat up?” Bucky grouched at Sam, who had somehow claimed the passenger seat.

“No.” Sam left no room for conversation making Regan wonder exactly what had crawled up his butt and died, but she didn’t ask.  She looked down at her phone, clutched in between her hands in her lap. She had been trying to coordinate travel to the location Bucky had indicated. Assuming that they could make it out of the airport, it shouldn’t be any problem getting to Siberia; Regan had cleared their path with any agencies that she could. She leaned her head forward, against the back of the front seat, trying to stretch her back a little when Bucky’s left arm bumped her lightly and Regan froze.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, making to move back behind Sam when Regan rested her hand on the smooth metal of his arm.

“It’s ok, this car is a joke. You can move this way, I’m already uncomfortable, you aren’t making it worse,” she finished on a little laugh.

Sam snorted and she looked up, intending to shoot him a glare for being a jerk even though he was sitting up front, but she caught sight of Steve kissing the blonde instead.

“So she’s… his friend?” Regan teased lightly with a smile on her face.

“Yeah,” Sam chuckled in return, ”It’s complicated.”

“Well that figures”

As the blonde woman turned to leave, Steve turned back to the tiny car, and was met by three smug grins, framed by the windshield. He shook his head, collected everyone’s gear and walked back to the beatle. After he stowed the gear and climbed back into the car Regan spoke,

“So, now what?”

“Well we need to get from Germany to Siberia, so an airport is the next step.”

“I figured, I’ve done what I can to keep us off anyone’s radar once we’re in the air, but I can’t do very much about your friends finding us before we get there.” Regan explained what she had been doing on the drive and held her phone out towards Sam. Sam looked at the phone and then back to Regan with a question on his lips. 

“You didn’t tell Clint and Wanda where to meet us already did you?” Sam nodded and dialed the phone as the rusted old car sputtered to life and Steve steared them out from under the overpass.

Looking out her small window at the passing scenery, Regan worried. She didn’t worry about getting Steve, Sam, and Bucky where they needed to go, she would handle that; she worried about seeing Wanda again. Regan worried that her presence could open the fresh wounds in Wanda’s heart. She, Wanda, and Pietro had been so close, a team, a family, what if seeing her again hurt Wanda? Just thinking of it made Regan’s heart squeeze painfully in her chest; she bit back tears. Assuming the other half of the Avengers caught up with her little group, which she was certain would happen, and assuming the fight was as bad as Cap suspected, Regan couldn’t afford to fall apart.

Regan wished, not for the first time, that she had a more normal life, that she could grieve her friend properly; Pietro deserved that much. Regan felt her eyes burning even as she repeated her instruction not to cry. 

“You okay?” Bucky mumbled, barely audible over the road noise.

Regan let out a breathy, very fake laugh, “no, no I am not. BUt I will handle it later.”

“Don’t always get a later,” was Bucky’s response, “what’s wrong?”

Regan looked away from the window and towards the super-soldier to her right, blinking to clear her eyes, “Just worried about Wanda.”

“Why?” Came Steve’s voice from up front. Clearly the super-soldier package came with super hearing, _ ”that figures.” _ Regan closed her eyes and looked at the floor.

“I worry that seeing me again may hurt her. That seeing me will make her think of PIetro. Make her remember that he’s… that he’s gone.” SHe choked out, clearing her throat to cover her voice breaking. Her eyes were still closed when she felt Bucky place a hand softly on her knee.

“You know,” Steve began, “she’s talked about you. Said she and her brother knew this girl in HYDRA. Said she was in HYDRA cause they’d kidnapped her,  she hated it. She said you were family to them. She’s asked a couple of times if we had any info on you but we didn’t, you were really under the radar.”

Regan was resting her forehead on the back of Steve’s seat, taking slow, deep breaths, losing the battle against her tears. Bucky squeezed her knee gently.

“It may remind her of her brother when she sees you, but I think it may help her too, may help you both. She has been afraid of herself lately, and losing her brother meant she lost an important anchor. I think you can help her more than you realize,” Steve added quietly. 

Sam, who had only heard the last bit of the conversation, hung up the phone and turned in his seat to face Reagan’s profile.

“Hey,” getting Regan to meet his gaze, “I’ve only known Wanda for a little while now, I never met her brother, and I just met you, but Wanda needs people to have her back. She needs people she trusts. She needs people who know her and who trust  _ her _ ,” he emphasized.

Regan gave him a small smile and nodded before leaning back against her own seat and closing her eyes.

Bucky kept his hand on Regan’s knee for the rest of the drive, despite the looks Steve and Sam were throwing him. He hadn’t even thought before he reached out to her, to comfort her, but he’d touched her with his vibranium arm. He did his dead-level best not to touch  _ anyone _ with his left arm; he detested it, and all it represented. But he hadn’t hesitated to reach out to her with it. Bucky chose not to think too deeply on this subject for the time being.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I used Google Translate (I know, I'm sorry) and I used Slovak for Sokovian (no reason, I just liked it), the translations are in parenthesis next to the phrases. Let me know what you think!

“So, we are up against Iron Man and his twin, Black Widow, and an android with a magical glowing gem in his head?”

“At least, Tony may have found more teammates since I left.” Steve answered, paying no attention to Regan’s sass.

“Ya know, I actually ran into Black Widow once,” she said, rambling, “she almost killed me… Never met either of the Iron Twins or the android, but I don’t think I’m gonna be super useful.” She was now chewing on the side of her thumb.

“Ideally, you won’t have to engage. Just hang back and save our asses if we get stuck” Sam explained reassuringly.

“Language.” Cap muttered sternly. Sam rolled his eyes but didn’t respond.

“Just get a spot that’s out of the way and be our eyes. Watch our backs and call if you see an opening, easy.” Sam grinned.

Regan looked at him with her eyebrows raised, “Nothing, ever, goes as originally planned, and nothing is ever easy. Whats plan B?”

“If all else fails, Cap and ‘Winter’ here need to get out.” Steve looked like he wanted to argue, but Regan met Sam’s gaze and nodded.

Bucky, who had been silent during the previous conversation, tensed and placed his hand on Regan’s knee again. Regan glanced at him, sensing his wariness and seeing it in the yellow tinge to his energy as they had arrived at the airport and parked in a lot next to a white van. Cap and Sam climbed out of the car and the passenger door of the van opened to Reveal Wanda and Regan felt a pang of fear. She took a sharp breath in and recoiled from the window, hoping she couldn’t be seen.

“Relax Bucky, they’re friendly,” Regan muttered.

“Then why are you hiding?”

“I… shit, I’m afraid of seeing Wanda still,” she gritted out.

“I wouldn’t be. She seems pretty stable,” Bucky said as he released her knee and looked at Regan who was practically in the footwell, trying to keep out of sight, “come on. You have to get out eventually.”

She remained where she was, closing her eyes.

Bucky reached over again and rested his left hand on her shoulder. “Regan,” he started causing her head to whip around; Bucky had never used her real name before, just her HYDRA tag. “I’m getting out too. I guarantee I will cause more trouble than you.” Meeting his gaze, she dropped her shoulders and nodded.

By the time she had crawled out of the car, Sam had crossed to the driver’s side and stood beside Steve and Wanda along with “Hawkeye” a.k.a. Clint Barton and a man Regan didn’t recognize were all out of the van.  

The unknown man was drooling over Steve, Regan almost had to laugh at the starstruck look on his face.

“We’re outside the law on this one. So, if you come with us, you’re a wanted man,” Steve explained to the man, who seemed unfazed by this.

“Yeah, well, what else is new?” Regan raised her brows at this.

“We should get going,” Bucky added from his position on the other side of the car from everyone else.

“I got a chopper firing up,” Hawkeye responded.

A voice came over the P.A. system just then, instructing travelers to evacuate the area due to a security threat.  _ “Well that’s us I assume.” _

“They’re evacuating the airport,” Bucky translated for the group.

“Stark.”

“Stark?”

Then, without further explanation, Steve instructed everyone to suit up and Regan just chuckled dryly before telling a confused Steve that she hadn’t had a “suit” per se since HYDRA.

“It wasn’t high on my priority list, nor have I needed one since I ran. Plus HYDRA probably lo-jacked the one I had anyway.”

“Regan?” At her name, Regan looked over and met Wanda’s searching gaze.

“Malá sestra!” (little sister) Wanda cried and threw her arms around Regan’s shoulders. Regan didn’t hesitate to return the embrace and pressed her forehead into Wanda’s neck.

“Ahoj vel’ká sestra. Dal som vám chýbal toľko” (Hello big sister, I have missed you so much) Regan responded. Wanda squeezed her again then held her at arm’s length and inspected her.

“You’re nervous. Why? Oh miláčik,” (sweetheart) her eyes teared up but she hugged Regan again, “I miss him all the time moja láska (my love), but I want you here. I have missed you too, been so worried about you. Pietro worried too. Now we are together again, I am sure he is more at peace,” she sniffled and squeezed Regan again.

“ľúbim ťa sestra,” (I love you sister) Regan whispered into Wanda’s neck and squeezed her back before parting.

“Well, now I know why Captain Rogers asked me to bring extra clothes,” Wanda smiled as she reached into the back of the van and grabbed a bundle of nylon and leather and handed it to Regan with a wink.Regan smiled and followed her to the other side of the van to change. 

The bundle included a pair of tight fitting black pants, a ¾ sleve black shirt with a leather corset piece over top. Leather gauntlets covered the exposed portion of Regan’s arms and knee-high black combat boots covered her lower legs. A gun sat in a thigh holster and there were two stiletto knives strapped to the underside of the gauntlets. The finishing touch to her new ensemble was a small ear bud enabling her to communicate with the rest of the team.  _ “A team. Never been on a team before…”  _ Regan hoped she didn’t have to use any of the weapons; she didn’t know these people personally, but they weren’t bad guys, she didn’t really want to hurt anyone today. 

Regan looked at Bucky, who was now standing next to her as Cap gave everyone the final lay of the land, when they all broke apart, Regan grabbed his arm.

“No matter what happens, I have your back.” She spoke without looking directly at him.

Bucky was taken aback. Regan squeezed his arm, glancing over at him, and Bucky placed his hand atop hers. He looked down at her hand and then back at her face, then he smiled, it was just a little smile, a sort of sad-looking smile, but it was a smile. Regan had never seen a smile on his face, and even this sorry smile, changed his whole face.

“Be careful Regan.” She nodded and they split apart.


	7. Chapter 7

_ “Well this is a fucking shit show,” _ Regan thought as she watched the fights in front of her. Not only had Tony Stark brought his twin, Colonel Rhodes, Widow, and Vision, But he had brought King T’Challa and a CHILD. She recognized the King of Wakanda from Bucharest but until she could get a hold of a computer, she had no way of knowing the kid. So she took off from her post, running towards the terminal.

Out of breath, Regan skidded to a stop at the first computer she found. As crappy as airport wifi usually is, it took her several minutes and creative trial and error before she got ahold of Stark’s team audio. Taking out her ear bud and popping it open, she carefully used a bobby pin and a few, small, electric shocks to wire the new audio feed to her bud too. She relayed the achievement to Cap and started her sprint back to the fight.

“Hold up,” someone on Stark’s team said, “New player in the terminal.”

_ “Shit,” _ Regan swore to herself and sped up. “Guys,” She panted as she kept her pace, “someone on Stark’s team spied me in the terminal.”

“We’re in the terminal too, third floor headed west.” Regan looked up as she reached an open balcony above her. She saw the kid, Spiderman, A.K.A Peter Parker coming her way.  _ “Fuck!” _

“Spider-kid incoming,” she yelled into her com as she ran and then hit the floor, sliding just under the kid’s grasp, “stay clear!”

“Too late,” Bucky growled. Regan glanced up and saw Bucky and Sam crash into the floor a few yards in front of her. She watched as they got webbed to the floor and kept herself behind Spiderboy and out of his line of sight while he gabbed at Bucky and Sam who were literally, his captive audience before Sam shot his small drone, Red Wing, just in time to take hold of a string of web coming from the kid’s hands and dragged him away.

“You couldn’t have done that earlier?” Bucky groaned, his left arm pinned to the floor.

“I hate you,” Sam replied.

“So, looks like you guys are having fun,” Regan teased lightly, jogging over to them.

“What the hell are you doing in the terminal?” Bucky growled at Regan as she knelt by Sam and started to pry him loose. Giving up on that idea quickly, she created small,  but hot sparks on her fingertips to burn the webbing off instead.

“Well I needed a computer if I was gonna get the visiting team’s audio feed,” she calmly stated as the last of Sam’s restraints fell away.

“Thanks Regan,” Sam called back as he ran off.

“You were supposed to stay out of sight,” Bucky whined, annoyed.

“Well I was out of sight until they looked at the terminal. They would have spotted me eventually, there are three of them in the air Bucky.”

He sighed as she burned the last of the webbing off of his arm and he sat up.

“Look, I… I don’t know why you’re even helping me. You need to get out of here. This can’t end well for anyone, and I… You need to get out of here before Stark’s team finds out who you are.”

“First, I am helping you because you deserve a shot, you deserve a fucking chance, and second, I’m not leaving. If Stark can figure out who I am then HYDRA clearly wasn’t as good at keeping secrets as they thought. I have…Look,  I have my reasons for helping you, they… HYDRA made me do some things I’m not proud of, and a few of them had to do with you. I don’t have enough time to explain all this, but I will, ” Regan repeated as she helped haul Bucky off the floor. He looked conflicted, she reached out as grabbed his left shoulder and squeezed lightly, “I promise.”

Bucky gaped at her. He didn’t feel like he deserved jack-shit, but she looked so determined, so adamant, he didn’t think he could convince her otherwise. But he would try, the girl he’d seen in HYDRA, the 10 year old kid that had been abducted and experimented on, she’d escaped, and didn’t need to get roped back in. Just as he’d formulated a response, there was a huge explosion outside the terminal and Scott Lang, A.K.A. Ant-man, spoke up over the coms,

“ Oh, man. I thought it was a water truck. Uh... sorry.”

“Sounds like they could use some help out there,” Regan grumbled, releasing Bucky’s shoulder, “go help them, I’ll stay out of sight, I promise. I’m gonna help Clint get to our ride out of here okay?” She jogged away before he could respond and Bucky shook his head as he left the terminal to re-engage.

The team had started to approach the hangar with the jet, but they were stopped by the entirety of Stark’s team. Regan stuck to the outside and sprinted toward the hangar while the opposing force was distracted. She kept clear of the fight and only stepped in once when T’Challa’s claws got too close to Bucky’s face, using the energy shield to throw T’Challa back from Bucky and dissipating it before anyone noticed her, or so she thought.

“The new player from the terminal, she’s enhanced, power looks similar to Wanda’s,” Black Widow said over the comms, but before she could engage Regan, Wanda caught her and threw her back into the fight.

Regan continued on, ducking and dodging to keep out of sight. 

“This is ridiculous… I am having a hard time believing this is the sort of problem that couldn’t be solved if ya’ll just sat your asses down and talked like adults.”

“Would have done that if Ross hadn’t slammed us with a tight timeline. I sorta think he did this on purpose,” Cap replied, Regan hadn’t realized that she had spoken out loud and she winced as the captain grunted his reply.

“Right. Sorry. I can see the jet, the path is clear for now. I can jump-start it from a distance and help steer for a while, we just have to get you all on it.” She called, sliding into a gap between two large containers.

There was a short discussion, ending with Sam and Clint telling the two super-soldiers to get their asses on the jet, then suddenly, Scott was HUGE. 

“What the fuck? Scott are you ok?”

All she heard in response was Scott chortling, but there was an equal amount of shock from the Stark team. So Regan urged the soldiers to take advantage of the diversion.

“What about you?”

“I’ll be fine Bucky, seriously, I’ve had so much worse. I escaped from HYDRA, this will be nothing,” Regan assured as she motioned for him to keep running. But as the men entered the hangar they met Black Widow,  _ “Shit.” _

Regan was about to run up when something grabbed her from behind.

“Now who do we have here?”

_ “Double shit,” _ Regan’s mind screamed and her eyes widened, but she didn’t answer Tony Stark’s question, as long as he was focused on her, he wasn’t noticing the jet. Speaking of the jet, she could see the men boarding now. Squinting her eyes, Regan looked for the small energy signature that showed the jet’s idling electrical system. When she saw the small, light blue cloud, she pushed it through the jet’s starter and opened the rear door. It was a good thing she had been trained on a similar jet, or she wouldn’t have known where to direct the electrical energy. 

Black Widow spoke to the men and Regan heard her tell Cap and Bucky to go, Regan blinked, shocked but kept control of the jet, as soon as Bucky’s and Steve’s energies boarded, she closed the door and activated the take-off sequence. 

Once the men on the jet gained control she pulled her influence as they pulled away and met Tony Stark’s gaze.

Tony Stark dropped her as he turned in pursuit of the jet. Regan was debating on running while the Avengers’ back were turned, but she saw one of the Iron Twins start to fall, and he was not in control.  _ “Oh fuck it,” _ She thought and ran towards his descending figure, searching for any signature. Nothing. She sensed nothing, so she pushed her own energy towards the malfunctioning suit, deep indigo, lightning like, energy bolts shot towards the falling man, sinking into the suit as she searched for the thrusters.

“What is she doing? Stop her!” someone was shouting at her, so she shouted back,

“I’m trying to save him you idiot! Now back off!” She shouted, mentally activating Stark team comms. Regan felt a small spark and she pushed what she thought were the thrusters and started them just as a yellow jet of light punched into her chest. 

“NO!” Regan screamed, her back hitting the ground just before her head and she thought she heard an answering scream before everything went black.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used Slovak for Sokovian (and I used Google Translate again, so if there are mistakes, I apologize).  
> Obviously, there are quotes/descriptions/dialogue from the movie here, clearly I did NOT write that, so credit to Marvel and it’s wonderful writers and actors!

Regan woke up with a ringing head, sore chest, and cuffs on her wrists in an empty, poorly lit room. A plain table in front of her and a chair on the other side with a mirror behind it. So, an interrogation room, but there was no interrogator as of yet, so she stretched as many of her muscles as she could from her position and opened her senses, searching for energies nearby. There were 4 people in the room behind the mirror, watching her she assumed. None of them seemed particularly angry or afraid, but one of them was letting of a shit-ton of annoyed vibes. Regan cocked an eyebrow, looking directly at the annoyed one,  _ “really, YOU’RE annoyed? You’re not cuffed to an uncomfortable chair when you have a concussion and chest pain that should be checked by a doctor. So why don’t you drag your sorry ass in here and start asking the questions that I won’t answer?” _

It took some time, but the annoyed person did eventually enter Regan’s interrogation room. 

“I have spent the last 5 years making sure that I kept track of every enhanced weirdo on this planet, I know where they are, I know what they can do, and I know a few ways to get them under control, so why,” the man announced as he slapped a file on the table and leaned into Regan’s personal space, “do I not have a fucking clue who you are?”

Regan’s response was to, once again, cock an eyebrow, and smirk, meeting his gaze directly. This did not ease the man’s annoyance. He spent, what felt like hours, throwing questions and tantrums Regan’s direction with no real reaction on her part. To her, this was nothing, HYDRA would have brought out the sharp utensils a while ago, and she was confident that this guy wouldn't, not yet anyway. So she held her tongue; “Wraith” was making an appearance.

Normally, when she was playing “Wraith”, Regan had at least a mask, but here she was naked, so she used the only weapon she had, silence.

Eventually, the man admitted defeat and grabbed her arm to escort her out. Regan did not fight, she knew better than to try an escape without some knowledge of her whereabouts. She was dragged through the building that she assumed was a prison before she was led into a large circular room. The only odd thing about this prison, so far, was its complete lack of windows, it was a good thing Regan wasn’t claustrophobic. The room had 6 small cells with clear cell doors. Two of the cells were unoccupied, but the other 4 held her former teammates. 

No one said a word as Regan was pushed into one of the open cells, and it remained silent until the annoyed man left which took a few minutes, since he felt the need to stalk around the room and give all of the prisoners the stink eye individually.

“So, they don’t know who I am. How long do you think I can keep it that way?” she asked no one in particular, rubbing at the marks that the handcuffs had left on her wrists.

“Dunno,” Clint replied nonchalantly, “did you ever leave any DNA evidence behind before, is there anyone from your past they could contact?”

“Not that I know of, I would think that it would have become a problem before now if I had.”

“So what should we call you if we can’t use your name?” Scott asked. 

“Uh… geez I don’t know. Sam, you’re the one with the nicknames, what you got?” Regan smiled as she asked.

“Blondie was the first thing I would have chosen before,” Regan laughed lightly, shaking her head.

“Pretty unoriginal fly-boy.”

“It’s not my best work, I admit.”

“Can I call you ‘sestra’?” Wanda rasped, the collar around her neck impeding her speech.

“Of course you can, what else would you ever call me?” Regan smiled in response.

“How do you say ‘sunshine’ in Sokovian?” Clint asked

“Slnečný svit. But if you’re looking for something that you could use as a name I would go with ‘Jas’, It means ‘light’.” Regan responded, sliding into a sitting position by the clear door and leaning her back against the wall.

“I think I will stick with Jas then.”

“Sounds good to me. Why ‘sunshine’ though?”

“Well Sam said ‘blondie’ I figured I could pick a stupid name too, just in a different language,” Clint smirked.

Regan laughed, “by the way Sam, blonde is ‘svetlovláska’.”

“Well that’s a mouthful,” Sam cackled.

“It is, any other words you wanna learn? I got nothing but time.”

“Now that you mention it…”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regan had taught Sam and Scott every dirty word and phrase she could think of  and had been listening to Scott talk about his baby girl for several hours now.  She could see Clint from her cell and noticed that he looked conflicted as Scott chattered on about Cassie’s many talents. Regan wondered what could be upsetting him, but since he was helping to hide her secrets, she decided not to question him about his. 

Regan was just starting to drift off as the main door opened to reveal Tony Stark; he looked a little banged up, and had his left arm in a sling; he looked tired.

Before the door had finished closing, Clint began to slow clap, “The Futurist ladies and gentlemen! The Futurist is here! He knows what’s  best for you, whether you like it or not.”

She tuned out Stark’s response, and their following banter, but she heard Tony refer to Clint’s family.  _ “Ah, that’s why he looked so upset… He wanted to share his ‘proud Papa’ moments too…” _

Scott tried to engage Tony too, but Stark blew him off and crossed to Sam’s cell.

“How’s Rhodes?” Regan wanted to pipe up, but last she checked, Tony Stark had thought she was trying to kill the Colonel, so she resolved herself to listen closely.

“We’re transferring him to Columbia Medical tomorrow so… fingers crossed. What do you need? Have they fed you yet?” Regan couldn’t hold back a snort at that; she’d barely been fed. The others had been fed better, but since she had been annoying the man in charge, she couldn’t really expect anything different. 

“I just knocked the ‘A’ out of their ‘AV’. We got about 30 seconds before they realize it’s not their equipment,” Tony explained to Sam, trying to get Steve and Bucky’s location out of him, “just look, because this is the fella who was supposed to interrogate Barnes. Clearly I made a mistake, Sam, I was wrong.”

“That’s a first,” Sam snorted in response, clearly not convinced or moved by Stark’s admission.

“Cap is definitely off the reservation and he’s about to need all the help he can get. We don’t know each other very well. You don’t have to…”

“Hey, it’s all right,” Sam interrupted, “look, I will tell you, but you have to go alone, and as a friend.”

Tony quickly acquiesced and Sam gave him the location. Tony nodded and headed out.

“You sure about this Sam?” Regan asked, voice barely above a whisper. Ass she could think was that Bucky may be dragged back into HYDRA yet, all she had tried to do may yet amount to nothing more than her continued existence in a jail cell.

“I don’t know,” Sam sighed in answer, “ but I think they’ll need help.”

Silent, impotent tears fell from Regan’s lashes and she hung her head. Locked in another cell by government agents who would love to use her for their own gain or watch her rot in place. And worse yet, she had dragged Wanda down with her, and left Bucky out in the cold. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is where I start to veer off the storyline. In my version, Bucky does not go right into cryo (not sure how I’m gonna make this work yet, I’m making it up as I go along… if you wanna help, I would LOVE that!) Once again, I used Slovak for the Sokovian language (and I used Google Translate so there are probably things wrong. The translations are in parentheses next to the text).  
> Obviously, there are quotes/descriptions/dialogue from the movie here, clearly I did NOT write that, so credit to Marvel and it’s wonderful writers and actors!

_ “And to think, I thought it couldn’t get worse this week,” _ Regan internally berated herself. If her internal clock was accurate, it had been about an hour since Tony Stark had left the room when she felt a presence enter her radius, one she recognized.

“Wanda,” she croaked around a catch in her throat, “Wanda, something is about to happen that is going to upset you. You are gonna want to fight it, but you can’t, okay? Please, please don’t fight this.”

“Hey, what are you talking about Sunshine? What’s going on?” Clint asked, looking over at her from his cot as Wanda’s eyes widened in fear and disbelief. Sam and Scott both stood up as well.

“A man is about to walk through that door and pull me out,” Regan explained rapidly, “ He’s not government, although I think he has convinced Ross that he is. He may try to take Wanda too. If he tries, I will stop him but…” Regan paused, pleading with the others to understand. “He’s HYDRA. I don’t think… You probably won’t see me again.”

Clint jumped to his feet and Sam pressed his hands to his cell door as the common room door opened and in walked Ross followed by Regan’s worst nightmare. The latter man looked straight at Regan’s cell, meeting her venomous glare with a self-satisfied smirk.

Without looking away from him, Regan pushed an electrical charge into the controls for the cell doors. She wasn’t looking to open the doors, but she had been covertly poking and prodding the systems during her captivity, and she’d noticed that the doors could be made opaque with a command from wherever the prison’s central hub was. Regan overrode the hub’s controls and forced all the doors but hers to turn opaque, blocking the view of their cell’s inhabitants. 

“Sestra,” (sister) Regan pleaded one last time, as her door was popped open and her nightmare, now enraged, dragged her out of her cell “Nepochádzajú ma hľadaťProsím, zostaň v bezpečí. Milujem ťa, milujem ťa staršiu sestru”(Don’t come looking for me. Please stay safe. I Love you, I love you big sister). She whimpered the last word as she was pulled from the room. 

She was tranquilized almost as soon as the door closed, she had no chance to fight; not yet at least. But Regan had been here before, she’d been here before and escaped. She had freed herself and tasted life on her own terms. There was no way IN HELL she would accept HYDRA’s control now. Nope. She had things still to accomplish. So as her consciousness faded, she promised herself a few things; she was  going to escape, she was  going to see Wanda again, she was  going to see Bucky again, and, she thought with an inward smirk, she was  going to join the Avengers and stamp out HYDRA for good.

**Bucky’s POV**

“What do you mean she wasn’t there?!” Bucky demanded as Steve returned with the remaining members of his team.

“She gave herself up, James,” Wanda rasped, throat still burning from the collar, “she hid me and the others, but HYDRA took her back.”

“Fucking Ross must have been casting around for information on her and tipped them off,” Clint growled, pulling at his short hair in frustration as he paced the floor. 

“Shit,” Bucky felt all the air rush out of his lungs as his legs gave out from under him and he collapsed onto the low sofa behind him. He buried his face in his hands, “she would still be free if she hadn’t helped me… Fuck this is all my fault.”

“She knew the risks going in Buck,” Steve comforted, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder but he received no response. 

“She wanted you to have the chance at a life of your own,” came Wanda’s slightly stronger voice, “she was involved in a lot of HYDRA’s technology. They used her skills mostly, but sometimes they used her powers to run their experiments, their machines, I think there were sometimes that they made her electrocute herself. She feels guilty, I don’t know specifically why, and it’s not my story to tell, but I know she cares about you. She feels similar about you to the way she feels about me, how she felt about Pietro. She wanted to help you, wanted you to be happy.”She looked at Bucky, her head tilted slightly with a small smile on her lips, “I’m not sure if she really understood why she did any of this, and I know that you don’t, but you have a place in her heart James, and she wanted to protect you.”

Bucky met her gaze for a moment before looking to Steve, determination in his eyes, “How do we find her?”

  
  



	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is where I start to veer off the storyline. In my version, Bucky does not go right into cryo (not sure how I’m gonna make this work yet, I’m making it up as I go along… if you wanna help, I would LOVE that!). So i did research (for like 20 min) on different poisons and venoms for use in the rest of this damn thing, if I get shit wrong… *shrugs* I’m sorry.

Regan gasped for air as her head was finally pulled out of the water; she didn’t want to give her torturer the satisfaction of seeing her cry, but her lungs were burning so badly from the lack of oxygen that it was no longer her choice. Tears coursed down her face as she drank in as much air as she could, knowing it wouldn’t be long before she was submerged again. But instead, she was hauled back, by her hair, away from the water and to the wall with her restraints attached to it. Regan wanted to fight, she had been fighting for what felt like weeks already, but she just didn’t have the energy, and she knew it was foolish to try now and waste the little energy she had.

She winced and hissed as her sore, bruised arms were shackled above her head but she didn’t speak or make any unnecessary movement. She met the guard’s eyes, through a curtain of her soaking wet hair, and kept a blank, if a bit menacing look on her face; her “wraith face”.

She’d long ago stopped trying to remove her alter-ego, “Wraith” was so ingrained in her now, there would be no getting rid of her.

A wraith is supposed to be a sort of ghost/grim reaper, the last thing a person would see. So as “Wraith”, Regan had adopted a fairly unaffected demeanor as she’d carried out her missions; people would always beg, but a wraith didn’t negotiate; they all died.

The guard looked away from her gaze, but didn’t leave her cell; they usually left her cell as soon as she was restrained, then again, the torture usually didn’t stop until she was unconscious.

As she considered this, the door opened and a woman entered Regan’s cell. The woman’s high heels clacked as she crossed the space to Regan, who watched her approach. The woman was in a business skirt-suit and had her hair pulled back, well most of it; the right side of her face was obscured by a swathe of black hair that shone almost green in the light from outside the cell.

“So, you are the infamous Miss. Adair?” the woman asked in an eastern european accent, Hungarian maybe? Regan made no move to answer, simply looked the woman in the eye; the only eye she could see; maintaining her “wraith face”.

“Mmm, nothing to say? Nothing has changed then,” she clicked her tongue in annoyance and motioned to the guard to leave. Regan tilted her head slightly but kept up her mask, and gave no other indication that she cared. The woman didn’t move until the guard was completely gone, then she slithered up to Regan, getting well within her personal space before speaking.

“Now, Miss. Adair, you are almost through the reconditioning process, then you will resume your work, yes? Actually, that isn’t a question; you will, or you will die.”

Regan continued to steadily meet the woman’s one-eyed gaze; HYDRA hadn’t succeeded in killing her yet, and she couldn’t really muster up a fuck to give at this point. She had done some pretty horrible shit, killed more people than she knew how to process and she  knew some of those people hadn’t been guilty of anything other than pissing HYDRA off. Maybe she deserved all this, maybe she deserved death… the longer the torture continued, the more her promises to herself seemed impossible to keep.

“You see, I have a new method, one I think you will find rather more effective than the previous few,” the woman had continued talking while Regan thought, and had withdrawn a syringe from her suit pocket. That syringe had Regan’s undivided attention.

“Now, you’ll do as I say, or this little tester dose will seem like a tickle,” the woman threatened as she stabbed the needle into Regan’s outer thigh and depressed the plunger before Regan could move. Movement then became involuntary as Regan’s body writhed in pain and she screamed.

The woman smirked and walked out of the cell, leaving her Wraith to her punishment.

**Bucky’s POV**

It had taken Clint a week to get ahold of Natasha and another three days to get any solid intel. Clint was out fetching Natasha who was on her way in to brief them all, the rest of the group was now gathered in a borrowed common room in T’Challa’s home. Steve stood staring out the window, Sam seemed to be relaxed on the couch, but he was waiting too, Bucky and Wanda sat near each other at a small table; they’d been talking more and more as the days went by with no sign of Regan. They’d almost completely cut themselves off from everyone else, but they could talk to each other without judgement.

The more they talked, the more Bucky remembered. At first, he’d thought that he and Regan had only met once, but now he remembered flashes of almost 20 encounters and several missions. Regan had run intel for him frequently, been the voice in his ear-piece, guiding him on missions, but every time he re-froze or was wiped, those memories disappeared.  He had one particular memory, at least, he thought it was a memory, of her, a good one, no murder or pain involved. That’s what he held onto as T’Challa’s researchers and doctors worked on removing the Winter Soldier triggers from his mind while the rest of the team tried to locate Regan.

Wanda helped James as much as she could; the doctors suggested that maybe, with her powers, some of the Winter Soldier’s triggers could be re-routed, or removed altogether. At first, she had been hesitant, after all, her powers were dangerous, and James had suffered for so long at the hands of people messing with his mind. But it only took a day for her to realize that she may be the only shot they had at helping him, so she agreed to try. Helping James helped her focus, and kept her from worrying as much, but she was distraught; she’d just found her sister only to have her ripped away again. She felt so helpless, but more than that, there was a burning anger; she had already lost her brother, her twin… she couldn't lose Regan too. Wanda and Bucky shared a look, his face told her that he felt the same.

Natasha and Clint entered the room just then. Nat looked put together as usual, but she looked exhausted, and almost a little worried.

“I’ve got a lead, but we have to move fast. If it’s who I think it is, Regan won’t be alive much longer.”

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this has taken so long, but I finished my Bachelor's degree if that's any excuse :)

Regan had lost all feeling in her arms, she had no awareness yet of the screaming pain in her shoulders. She was slumped in her wall shackles, completely exhausted. She couldn’t even draw energy from the building, the scientists had lined the walls of her cell with something that was able to block her powers. **  
**

She had been strapped into the chair, the Winter Soldier’s chair, and the scientists had tried to use it in her like they had him. It hadn’t done what they’d planned, but it had done something. The chairs electrical current had been altered somehow and it no longer meshed with her own so when the lab coats had initialized the chair, she screamed in pain and quickly blacked out. When she came to, the lab had been destroyed. She was no longer restrained in the chair, having snapped the restraints. The chair was sparking and popping; fuses shot and wires fried. There were large scorch marks surrounding the chair and the two men standing closest to it were on the floor, charred and likely dead. Regan didn’t care, for a moment she was unrestrained and energized; she ran for the door, only to be dropped by a tranquilizer dart. When that had worn off, Regan was back in her cell. The woman reappeared, scolded her as if she were a naughty child and shot her full of poison again.

Regaining consciousness was an exercise in pain. Regan’s throat was raw from screaming, her legs sore from being left in their half folded position for too long and her shoulders felt like they were being torn away from her torso. Squeezing her eyes shut, Regan forced her feet underneath her and straightened her legs. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she used the wall behind her to help her upright, gasping as she almost collapsed. Once she was standing, leaning heavily on the wall, she opened her eyes; the room was empty, and she was alone. 

There had originally been a camera in her cell, recording her every moment, but it had taken very little energy or effort for Regan to disable it every time it was replaced so HYDRA had opted to have a guard in her cell instead. Regan stretched as much as she could and tried to stifle her moans of pain. Once she was able to stand without the help of the wall, she tested her power. Drawing energy from herself since she couldn’t reach anything else; she felt an answering tingle on her fingertips. Regan had been afraid that whatever had caused her episode in the chair might have crippled or even killed her powers out right, so she was glad to feel the burn of the electricity across her skin. She smiled. As she continued to move, she became aware of the many slashes, nicks, and bruises covering her body. There was a large amount of her own blood sticking her clothes to her skin, her movements causing the caked cloth to pull and reopen some of her wounds. Hissing in pain, she knew she had to stay standing, if she were to lean back against the wall again, she wouldn’t be able to push herself back up again. 

Her head shot up at the sound of the cell door opening. She watched as two guards entered first, followed by the woman. She looked much the same as she always did, just a different colored shirt, and different shoes. 

“Ah, I see our wraith has awakened. Have a nice nap?”

Regan chose to look at a spot in the wall over the woman’s shoulder and slipped into her emotionless mask; she couldn’t show weakness, but she also couldn’t let the woman know that her powers were functional, possibly functional enough to kill the three of them and escape. 

“Mmm, not talking still? Well, I **know** your vocal cords work, I’ve heard your screams. Such a lovely soprano,” the woman hummed with a sick smile on her face. Regan fought not to flinch when the woman reached out and brushed her fingers over Regan’s cheek and down her neck, resting at the juncture where her neck met her shoulder as she drew her face up next to Regan’s. 

“Still so defiant Wraith?” The woman purred right next to Regan’s ear. Regan still fought the urge to flinch away. 

“Such a trial, but good things come to those who wait, yes? I think you could do with some more waiting,” she patted Regan’s cheek and this time Regan did flinch, but if the woman noticed, she didn’t seem to care. 

“This ought to be her last day of reconditioning,” the woman spoke to the guard nearest Regan, turning just enough to smile at her captive she added, “make sure the lesson sticks.”

As the woman walked away, the guards approached Regan, who maintained her “wraith face” while terror and helplessness collided in her belly. 

**Bucky-**

The flight was taking too damn long. He knew that they couldn’t go any faster, but he couldn’t help feeling like they needed to, like they were gonna be too late. He’s given up sitting 10 minutes into the 90 minute flight and was pacing the jet. 

“Buck,” Steve began, but Bucky silenced him with a glare. He didn’t want to be talked down, didn’t want to hear how everything would be alright, he wanted Regan back. 

He shook his head; not even 3 days he’d known Regan now and he was already attached. They’d barely even spoken really, but he felt something, something more than just an obligation to find her because she’d helped him. Some part of him knew her, remembered his years of interaction with her, cared for her. She had said that she felt guilty for something she’d had a part in, something related to him, but if his vague memories were anything to go by, the soldier had already forgiven her. 

“On approach,” came Clint’s voice, causing Bucky to snap back to reality and turn towards his seat. 

“Landing’s gonna be a little rough, better buckle up back there,” Natasha added. 

**Regan-**

The screaming of an alarm eclipsed her own. Regan was hanging limp in her restraints again, at least one bone in her left leg was broken, her left shoulder was dislocated, and several ribs were likely broken as well. Her right eye was swollen shut and she could feel blood trickling out of the corner of her mouth. Her tormentors rushed from her cell, leaving her alone again. She could hear the alarm, but the only thing she thought was that she wished it would stop; her head was already ringing and spinning and the noise didn’t help. 

As the minutes ticked by, the alarm continued and Regan became more lucid. Lucid enough to realize that if she could gather enough strength, she could make an escape attempt. The sorry state of her body would make this more difficult, but she had to try; this was the only opportunity she’d had so far, and she couldn’t guarantee that another would come along. She couldn’t afford to waste this chance. 

Unable to put weight in her left leg, Regan used the shackles holding her to the wall and her battered right arm to lever herself into an upright lean against the wall before focusing on her restraints. Reaching for her powers, and feeling the draw on her dwindling energy; the burn returned to her fingertips. The burn never hurt her, but it did make her skin extremely hot to the touch, and it gave her the ability to melt the metal shackles. The cuffs were thick, but they soon became malleable, the instant they were, Regan yanked her wrists free. She almost screamed in relief and pain as her arms came down to her sides. Taking a few of her precious moments, she used the wall to force her shoulder back into its socket, crying out as quietly as she could before rolling both joints out and limping towards the cell door. 

_“Fucking idiots,”_ Regan thought as she tested the door and found it unlocked, _“just because an alarm sounds you forget to secure your prisoner? You’d better hope you don’t make it out of this, HYDRA isn’t gonna be kind to you after this fuck up.”_

Out in the hallway, Regan found no one on watch, but she still wasn’t home free; she had no idea how to get out, she’d only ever been to the lab and her cell. She could feel the building’s energy now though, and she knew that if she followed the electricity draw, she could find her way to the command center. That would draw the most power in the building, so she should be able to find it just be searching for the heaviest source of power draw. She encountered no one in her hobble through the halls, but she did find a lot of unconscious or dead HYDRA agents. Not wanting to get her hopes up, Regan continued on. Finding the command room took longer than Regan would have liked, but once outside the door, she froze; this room, wasn’t empty. 

**Bucky-**

Natasha had accompanied him to find the command hub, as back up, although he had vehemently stated that he didn’t need or want help, she hadn’t acknowledged him. They had systematically taken out anyone in their way as they searched for the room that would have the surveillance feeds, feeds that could tell them where Regan was being held. Having found it however, they encountered another problem. 

Inside the room was a woman wearing a skirt-suit, her green-black hair swept over one side of her face, and a dead-man switch in her hand. 

Natasha and Bucky both had hand guns aimed at her, but the woman just smiled. 

“Where’s Regan?”

“Who?” The woman calmly asked. 

“Wraith,” Natasha clarified, “where are you keeping her?”

“Oh,” the woman nodded, still smiling serenely, “she is in her cell, incidentally the same cell I’ve rigged with poisonous gas. Gas that will be released by this trigger here. If you shoot me, the wraith will die.”

Bucky’s grip tightened on his gun, “I want proof of life, show me her feed,” Bucky motioned to the monitors showing various rooms. He couldn’t see Regan’s. 

“Well I’d love to Soldat, but she kept destroying the cameras I put in her cell, so I’m afraid you’ll have to take my word for it,” she giggled. 

“No they won’t,” a gravely voice replied. 

**Regan-**

She entered the room then, looking her captor in the eye. “You know, a wraith is believed to be a harbinger of death? It’s supposed to be a spirit that’s shows up just before you die, the last thing you ever see. I guess I am your wraith,” she said as evenly as she could with her wrecked voice as Natasha pulled the trigger. 

Regan swayed on her feet as the woman’s body hit the floor. Bucky caught Regan around the waist causing her to groan in pain as his hands and arms put pressure on her wounds. Bucky shifted his arms so he could lift her, one under her knees and one across her back. 

“Let’s clear out,” Natasha said, holstering her weapon and heading for the door. 

“Steve, we got her. Heading out,” Bucky spoke into his comm, “you doin’ alright?” He asked Regan. 

“I’ve been better,” she grated out, her throat burning. She whimpered when Bucky sped up and jostled her. 

“Shit sweetheart, I’m sorry. We’re almost there.” 

Regan hummed in response, closing her eyes and resting her head against Bucky’s chest. 

“Regan?” She heard his voice, but it was like she was hearing it from underwater; it was soft and garbled. When she tried to respond, she felt completely drained and unable to even open her eyes. 

“Regan?!”


	12. Chapter 12

**Bucky**

Regan was still, but she was breathing; her heart was still beating and for the moment, that was enough. When she had passed out in his arms, he and Natasha had run to the jet, narrowly beating the others. Wanda caught sight of him carrying Regan and her face paled.

“Wilson,” Bucky called, his voice scratchy, “Regan’s worse than expected, she’s unconscious.”

Sam rushed over at his call, carrying the kit. Bucky laid Regan out on the small cot at the back of the jet when Sam instructed. Sam leaned over her, checking her pulse, and started cataloging her injuries; Bucky felt sick. He kept his position by her side, holding her hand as if he could will her to wake up if he just gripped her strongly enough. 

“How is she?” Wanda appeared just behind Bucky; she spoke quietly and kept her gaze on Regan. 

“Not great,” Sam responded as he began to cut away what remained of Regan’s clothes. It looked like she was still wearing the prison jumpsuit that Wanda, Sam, Clint, and Scott had been wearing when Steve broke them out, but it was hard to tell considering how dirty and torn up it was. 

“How not great?” Clint now peered around Wanda as he, Steve and Scott returned to the jet. 

“Well, she’s lucky she’s unconscious. It looks like she has multiple broken bones, judging from the bruising around her ribs, she may have some internal bleeding, and there are slashes and what look like puncture wounds all over.”

“Puncture wounds?” Natasha called questioningly. She and Clint had headed for the cockpit and the jet was rising now, but at the mention of the punctures, she had turned in her seat.

“Yeah, like needle marks. Someone shot her up with somethin’, and I’m guessing it’s not penicillin.”

“No,” she confirmed as she walked back towards them, “it’s not.”

“You know what it is then? Cause I have a feelin’ I may need to know.”

“Yeah, but you’re not gonna like it. We’re gonna have to call T’Challa, Regan is going to need a full course of antivenom, multiple varieties.” Natasha shouted instructions to Clint as he put through the call for her. She jogged back to the cockpit to talk to whoever answered, Wanda trailing behind her. Steve and Scott were seated along the sides of the jet, seeming deep in conversation. Bucky was silent. 

He closed his eyes, feeling useless. “What can I do?” He asked quietly, to no one in particular. 

“Take this and press it here.” Gauze was held out to him and his free hand, his metal hand, was guided to Regan’s side, where a wound was bleeding heavily. Bucky placed the gauze, and pressed it into her gently, applying light pressure. 

“So,” Sam said calmly as he opened more gauze, “you and Regan knew each other from before?”

“Yeah,” Bucky answered, slightly stunned that the man was talking to him.

“She didn’t talk about it much, but she seemed to trust you. What do you remember?”

“Not… not much. But I do remember working with her a few times. Mostly it’s bits an’ pieces. But I know that she and I were friends, or as close as you could get to that anyway.”

“I can see that. She’s important to you?”

Bucky’s brow furrowed, he looked up at Sam, “what do you mean?”

“I mean, you obviously care about her. Dunno if this is cause of how close you were before or somethin’ else, but you went back, into a HYDRA base, to get this kid. Now I know,” Sam said, cutting Bucky off when he looked about to speak again,” I know that she helped you, but I don’t think you’re acting like this just to repay a favor. I don’t think she was either.”

The memory played in Bucky’s mind again. The memory that he wasn’t sure happened, but he hoped it had. The plane jostled beneath his feet and snapped him out of it as Natasha walked up to them. 

“T’Challa’s people have the antivenoms on standby, we should be there in 15,” Natasha met Bucky’s eyes briefly before looking to Sam, “is she gonna make it?” She asked softly.

“I think so, we just have to get this bleeding under control and keep her vitals up. What venoms are we dealin’ with here?”

Natasha sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose before answering, “if it’s the same as the last time, it will be a mixture of coral snake, platypus and bullet ant.”

Bucky and Sam both made faces. “Well that’s an odd and specific combo,” Sam mused. But Bucky met Natasha’s eyes again before speaking.

“Bullet ants venom causes the most pain. Coral snake venom can induce seizures. And Platypus venom is the longest lasting, and has no known antivenom.” Sam grew more concerned as Bucky explained.

“Is this woman insane?!”

“Arguably, yes she was. She’s dead now, thankfully, but we can’t know for sure that she hadn’t changed her formula.” All they could do is hope that the crazy woman hadn’t  _ improved _ her torture juice. Bucky pressed a little harder on his gauze pad, asking for another when he noticed Regan’s blood seeping through.

_ “Just a little longer doll. A few more minutes and the pain will go away. Just keep breathing… please.” _

**Regan**

A stinging pain all over her body woke her, but as soon as she was awake, Regan couldn’t believe she had slept through the cacophony surrounding her. She was being wheeled off a jet that looked strangely familiar, though she couldn’t place it, and people all around her were shouting to each other. She went to raise her hands to her ears but they were strapped to the gurney beneath her. Panic started to burble up within her as she looked around, searching for anything she recognized, hell even a HYDRA agent, at least then she’d know what she was dealing with. But as she tried to move her head, pain shot up and down her spine. She cried out, her body doing its best to thrash on the table within the restrains. All she could feel was pain, and now fear; she didn’t know where she was, or what was going on. A man in a lab coat approached her with a syringe and she screamed.

Reaching out with her power, she drew from the jet she’d just been wheeled off of and shot the electricity towards the syringe toting man, flinging him backwards with a little flick of her wrist; the only movement she could effectively manage. Pulling more energy towards herself, Regan wrapped the warm sparks around her body, creating a cocoon, protecting her from the people around her and shocking the people who had been holding the rails of the gurney to pull her along. 

She could barely hear the voices of the lab coats around her calling out for more people the come and help, over the crackles of her cocoon and the sound of her own breathing. Each breath echoed in her head, too loud she knew, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Pulling a tiny tendril away from her cocoon, Regan set to work on removing her restraints. These restraints weren’t metal, but cloth could melt or be set on fire with a strong spark. Finishing the straps around her arms and middle, Regan tried to sit up only to fall back to the table, pain now screaming from her midsection as well as her spine. Pushing power through her body to her feet, Regan still removed the straps around her ankles, preferring to be free to move, even if doing so caused her pain. Resolving herself to the waves of pain she was sure were to come, she rolled herself off the gurney and to the ground, hitting it with a pitiful sounding moan.  She pushed and levered herself into a sitting position and closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them, there was a man kneeling in front of her. Wait… she knew him…

“Soldier? Wait… B..Bucky?”she said slowly. His face lighting up when she used his name.

“Yeah, Regan, it’s Bucky. Are you ok?” As soon as he talked, her head cleared enough that she remembered where she had been, what had been happening before she passed out.

“Oh shit… Fuck did I hurt anyone?!” Panicked still, but for a whole different reason, Regan tried to look around, forgetting again that she was injured and falling to the ground again, catching herself on her elbows, hissing.

Bucky went to her, but couldn’t get close, her energy still wrapped around her. “No, everyone is ok, the shocks you gave the docs were too low of an amperage to hurt them much. Can you lower your shield so I can help you?” He said calmly, though on the inside he felt as though he’d run a marathon; heart racing. 

She looked as if she’d completely forgotten about it, shaking her head slightly, her shield dropped and Bucky approached again. “Sorry,” she said, “I… um… shit I have no idea what’s going on,” she rested her forehead on the ground as she spoke. “God I’m so embarrassed.”

Bucky chuckled as he bent down to her, “no reason to be, one of us should’ve stayed with you to make sure you knew what was up in case you woke up. Is it ok if I pick you up?”

When she nodded her assent, Bucky gently eased her up from the ground and slid his arms under her. He nodded to the doctors, telling them he’d carry her inside.

“We’re in a safe place ok? Everyone is here; me, Wanda, Steve, Sam, Scott, Clint and, Natasha. The doctors here are gonna get you patched up and healthy.”

Regan nodded, “Then we’ll kick what’s left of HYDRA’s ass.”

“You got it,” he replied with a small smile.

When they reached what would be Regan’s room, Bucky placed her on the bed. He was about to pull away but Regan grabbed his sleeve. He looked to her face, she wasn’t looking at him, but at the tray of instruments off to the side; her eyes were wide, and the grip she had on his sleeve was tight.

“Want me to stay?” She nodded, so he perched next to her on the bed as they waited for the doctor to come in.

 


	13. The Final Chapter?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this may be the end of Wraith, or not, I haven't decided. Let me know how you feel either way

Regan was in and out of consciousness for the next couple of days. Dr. Cho’s cradle technology meant that her recovery was quicker than normal, but due to Regan’s powers, they couldn’t utilize the full size machine; every time the lid was closed over her, her powers would short circuit the machine. Bucky stayed by her side as much as he could; partly because he wanted to be near her, but also partly because if Regan woke up alone, things could turn ugly, fast. 

All of the doctors had stopped wearing their lab coats into her room, having quickly found out that if she saw anyone in a lab coat, she would start to panic. The first time it had happened, Bucky and Steve both had to restrain her. Bucky could feel his soul crushing as she struggled in his grip, but all he could do was continue to speak to her in as soothing a voice as possible until she calmed down. Seeing her eyes glaze over in fear killed him, so he stayed by her, knowing that if she saw him first, she was less likely to be afraid. But after three days of only leaving Regan’s side to go to the bathroom, Wanda came in and forced him out. 

“Bucky, you stink,” she said, pushing him out of the room, her hands on his shoulders. Bucky tried to argue, turned around to face her as they reached the doorway, but stopped at the look on Wanda’s face. It was a soft, but resolved look;  a small smile that reached her eyes. Wanda was with her sister again, and Regan would be okay. Bucky hadn’t thought to give Wanda time with Regan, and now he felt like shit. He looked down before speaking, holding onto the doorframe, 

“I’m sorry Wanda, I hadn’t meant to monopolize…”.

“You didn’t Bucky,” she reassured, still smiling, “but you need a break, and I want to spend time with her. I can handle this, please go rest.” Bucky flashed her a little smile in return, and turned to walk to his room as Wanda added, “Oh, and shower. You really do stink. Regan would rather you smell clean than like you had been rolling in the mud.” Bucky smiled broadly at that, even laughed a little, and gave her a small salute before heading to his shower.

* * *

 

It took another week before she was up and about. Regan had loved having so much time with Wanda and Bucky, but she was unbelievably happy to be able to stretch her body. That’s not to say that she did so unmonitored; Bucky was by her side almost every second, watching her, making sure she didn’t overdo anything. At first this was okay, cute even, but as the days wore on, she started to chafe. She needed time alone.

It had been a week and a half since her last cradle treatment, and Regan had taken to walking laps around the outside of T’Challa’s compound, enjoying the fresh air, and open space. She did her best to take her walks when Bucky was going through his HYDRA removal treatments; partly to avoid his hovering, but also because her mind was whirling and she did her best thinking while she walked. His treatments were going well, and should be ending soon. They were utilizing a modified version of a program Tony Stark had developed, combined with talk therapy. Regan had been offered therapy as well, but she had declined. Maybe one day she could do it, but now? It was all too fresh; the open wounds HYDRA had left her with needed a chance to scab over first. 

Bucky’s treatment was proceeding well; according to Steve, T’Challa’s doctors would be testing the trigger words today. Regan wanted to be there, really she did, but at the same time, she was afraid. Not that she’d admit to that. She worried that Bucky’s triggers wouldn’t ever  go away entirely, she worried that the treatments would hurt him, that he would feel the same panic she had while the doctors tried to help her. She could feel her heartbeat speed up the more she thought about him. Regan had only wanted to protect the struggling man she’d known in HYDRA; he had always looked so lost. Being in a similar position, there was only so much she could do, but she did what she could. Like she had done with the twins, Regan had opened a part of her heart for him. She had never had the chance to be as close to him as the twins due to his refreezes, but as much as she could, she had tried to help. With Wanda and Pietro she had been tactile; holding them, soothing their manic energy, and been an ear to their problems. With the soldier, Bucky, she had been at his back; she was his eye in the sky or ear to the ground on missions, she fought with him, protected him as much as she could. She’d even drawn a few smiles from the soldier over time. Once, Regan even though she’d heard him laugh. 

_ It wasn’t on a mission, but she was wandering the halls, more like sneaking around to see what she could, and the soldier had caught her. He’d seemed to recognize her that time. _

_ “What are you doing Little Ghost?” Regan had smiled at that. She’d never told him her name, but when he was remembering himself, when he was less the soldier and more the man he was before, he hadn’t liked to use the HYDRA tag, choosing one of his own instead. _

_ “Nothing,” she’d said with a closed-lipped smile, and a crafty spark  in her eyes. _

_ “Not sure I believe you,” he’d replied with a raised eyebrow, “are you looking for trouble again?” _

_ “Aren’t I always? All I’m doing is scoping the place out. Besides, if these fuckers can’t catch me doing this, then I have a better chance of getting out of here sooner rather than later.” _

_ “Getting out?” the soldier had seemed shocked at that statement. At the time Regan hadn’t understood, but it had never crossed his mind to try and leave before; they’d broken him so badly. _

_ “Yup, and I’m taking you and the twins with me when I do. We’ll bust outta here and ride off into the sunset. Then we’ll come back and blow this place  to smithereens. Then I’ll fry whatever’s left till this is nothing but a smoking hole in the ground.” The soldier had just stared at her, mouth slightly open, not sure how to respond, so she had continued. _

_ “Don’t worry, we’ll figure all the shit out with your head too, take you back to who you used to be. I’ve seen pictures of you from before, you were quite the ladykiller I bet,” she added, turning to flash him a smile. The soldier had recovered himself a little and scowled at her, but it wasn’t convincing, because Regan just giggled, in his face. He’d fixed her with a look that had grown men shaking in their boots, and She’d. Fucking. Giggled. In his face. Taken aback, he’d tilted his head, face softening in surprise. Regan laughed again and closed the distance between them, pressed a light kiss to his cheek and said, “You can’t scare me Soldier, I like you too much,” then patted the cheek she’d kissed before skipping away. The soldier had just shaken his head and chuckled at her antics, turning away and walking the other direction. Knowing that had been the moment he’d started to fall for his fellow HYDRA captive, his teammate, his Little Ghost. _

Bucky smiled, the “hopefully a memory” playing out in his head again as he left the lab, the tests had been successful, HYDRA no longer had a foothold in his head; he was elated, practically skipping through the hallways of the compound, looking for Steve, and Regan. He couldn’t wait to find her and tell her he was completely free from HYDRA. Steve was right by the door that lead out to a path around the compound, his eyes following a small figure in the distance, but he turned when he heard Bucky approaching, his face lighting up.

“It worked?” Bucky nodded and pulled Steve into a chest crushing hug. The two men laughing in relief. They stayed that way for a while before Sam approached and cracked his usual snarky joke about Steve and Bucky being too close for his comfort. Bucky didn’t even care this time, letting Steve go, he flung out an arm and pulled Sam in instead.  Sam flailed for a moment before capitulating and patting Bucky on the back with a sincere sounding, “happy for you man, now let me go”.

“Where’s Regan?” Bucky asked as he let Sam free.

“She’s out on her walk again,” Steve answered, pointing out the door with his thumb, “I was watching her, she’s been pacing for the last few minutes”.

Steve hadn’t even taken a breath and Bucky was out the door, loping over the Regan.

Regan head was down, and she was indeed pacing, lost in a sea of anxiety for Bucky, unaware he was approaching her. He reached her and wrapped his arms around her from behind, swinging her around without a thought. Regan squealed as she was lifted off the ground, smiling when she heard Bucky’s voice in her ear, “it worked! They’re gone!”

“Yes! Yes, I’m so happy for you Bucky!” She cheered, he set her down and she turned in his arms to wrap her own around his neck and pull him into a proper hug. 

“Why were you out here pacing?” Bucky asked after a moment, loosing his grip around her so he could see her face.

“Oh… I was…it’s nothing” Regan paused, dropping her arms and looking anywhere but Bucky’s face. She didn’t want to admit she was worried about him; it wasn’t really her place, and she didn’t want to put a damper on this great mood.

“Didn’t look like nothing,” Bucky moved one of his hands from Regan’s waist to her cheek, lifting her face, “C’mon, you can tell me.”

“I was just… worried.”

“‘Bout what?” he responded, furrowing his brow slightly, she still wasn’t meeting his eyes, “wait, were you… were you worried about me?”

Regan closed her eyes but nodded. Bucky chuckled then, and Regan’s eyes met his, confused.

“Doll, why wouldn’t you tell me that? Everyone was worried, hell I was scared as hell.”

“I know, I just didn’t really think that, I dunno, It sounds stupid now, but I didn’t feel like it was my place ya know?”

Bucky chuckled again, tilting his head a little to look right into hers, “no, I don’t get that. You have known me a long time Little Ghost, you have every right to worry about me, just like I have the right to worry about you out here alone, pacing, too much for your injuries I might add.”

Regan smiled then, and leaned her forehead into Bucky’s chest and grumbling something she hoped he wouldn’t hear, but he did. He froze, placed his hands on her shoulders, pulled her away from him and looked her in the eye again, “I’m gonna need you to repeat that Doll.”

Regan’s face burned, and she looked down again, of fucking course he heard her,  _ damned supersoldier hearing.  _ Well, now she couldn’t lie.

“I said you’re lucky I love you, you overbearing fusspot.”

“Fusspot? Who still talks like that?”

“Seriously, that’s what you’re taking away from that sentence?”

Bucky laughed, a full, happy laugh as he pulled Regan in again, resting one hand on the small of her back and threading his new metal fingers through her hair. 

“You called me ‘little ghost’,” Regan spoke quietly, “do you remember more?”

“Everyday,” Bucky replied, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, “I didn’t like to call you ‘wraith’, but I didn’t know your real name. ‘Little ghost’ was your name to me.”

Regan hummed in affirmation.

“I only tried to scare you once. I glared at you after you told me you wanted to burn the compound down, and you just laughed at me, kissed my cheek and told me that I couldn’t scare you. You were the only one who was never afraid of me.”

“And that was the only time I’d heard you laugh,” Regan giggled, Bucky could feel a weight lift from his chest, it had been a real memory. He squeezed his arms tighter around Regan.

“That was when I started to fall for you, my little ghost. The only one who could look at me a giggle. I love you too Regan.”

Regan was about to pull back from the embrace when a hissing crackle met her ears. They both looked up and sprinted away from the spot they’d been standing, and just in time too. A huge column of what looked like lightning struck right then. It came over Bucky’s head and he bent to shield Regan before he realized that he felt nothing. He looked to her face and smiled, she was diverting the strike around their bodies and into a kind of shield over them. He straightened and stood behind her, his hands on her waist so he could move her at the first sign of danger as the column fell away. 

Two men were standing in the center of a circle carved into the grass below, one blond and muscular, the other dark haired and lean. Steve, Sam, Clint and Wanda had all come running out during the strike and now stood to the side of the bubble Regan still held around herself and Bucky. Wanda looked at her, saw how Bucky was holding her and smiled, but said nothing. Steve walked up to the blond man and spoke.

“Thor,” he nodded to the other man, “what brings you here?”

“Captain,” the god clasped Steve’s forearm and clapped his back, “I seek information.”

“And Loki is with you because?” Clint spoke up, “got another alien invasion planned?”

“Not as yet archer, I am actually more interested in the woman who is holding Thor’s lightning at the moment,” Loki smiled at Regan then, successfully diverting everyone’s attention to her. Bucky’s hands tightened on her waist, and she dropped the bubble, absorbing what energy was left.

“Oh yes,” Loki’s smile grew, “this should prove very interesting.”


End file.
